Well it is official, the registration site for the 2012 Scripting Games is open. This is a major milestone on the trek for the games. Now, I just sit back and see how many people register for the games. The announcement that the registration opened occurred on the Hey Scripting Guy! blog . In that post, I mentioned several reasons for competing in the games. I would like to state my top ten reasons for competing in the 2012 Scripting Games. 1. It is a great chance to learn Windows PowerShell. 2. It is a great chance to receive a free critique of your PowerShell scripts by some of the best scripters in the world. 3. It is a tremendous opportunity to compare your scripting skills with other people around the world. 4. It is a great opportunity to learn from your peers, as you see their solutions...

One of the cool things about being on a documentation team at Microsoft is the chance to see all the work that goes in to producing the learning and supporting materials for the new products. When the product happens to be a huge release, such as Windows 8, the efforts are massive.
Documentation white space is a term that describes when there is a product feature with no corresponding learning / supporting materials. In the old days, Microsoft, and our customers, seemed to feel that only Microsoft could fill this white space. Also in the old days, that documentation took the form of books and on the box help. I still remember when as a junior admin I first opened the box for Windows NT 3.51, out tumbled an envelope full of 3.5 inch floppy disks, and next came several big thick books of product...

Here’s the fifth post in our series of guest posts by Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVPs). Since the early 1990s, Microsoft has recognized the inspiring activities of MVPs around the world with the MVP Award . MVPs freely share their deep knowledge, real-world experience, and impartial and objective feedback to help people enhance the way they use technology . Of more than 100 million users who participate in technology communities, around 4,000 are recognized as Microsoft MVPs. This post is by Grant Fritchey, SQL Server MVP . Thank you, Grant! This post covers aspects of the about-to-be-released Microsoft SQL Server 2012 . (As does “ From the MVPs: Get ready for AlwaysOn in SQL Server 2012 ,” by Denny Cherry.) Grant here. Introduced with SQL Server 2008, Extended Events are an excellent...

We have received quite a few positive reviews on the Microsoft Manual of Style, Fourth Edition . I would like to share a couple excerpts of this Slashdot review by Ben Rothke, who nicely explains the purpose of the manual and clearly understands its audience. Here are three pointed statements from Ben.
“Style guides by their very nature of highly subjective and no one is forced to take accept the Microsoft style as dogma. The authors themselves (note that the book was authored by a group of senior editors and content managers at Microsoft, not a single individual) note that they don't presume to say that the Microsoft way is the only way to write. Rather it is the guidance that they follow and are sharing it with the hope that the decisions they have made for their content professionals...

Here’s the fourth post in our series of guest posts by Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVPs). Since the early 1990s, Microsoft has recognized the inspiring activities of MVPs around the world with the MVP Award . MVPs freely share their deep knowledge, real-world experience, and impartial and objective feedback to help people enhance the way they use technology . Of more than 100 million users who participate in technology communities, around 4,000 are recognized as Microsoft MVPs. This post is by Denny Cherry, SQL Server MVP . Thank you, Denny! This post and our next few “From the MVPs” posts cover aspects of the about-to-be-released Microsoft SQL Server 2012 . Hello; Denny here. AlwaysOn and SQL Server Availability Groups are probably the biggest, shiniest new feature in SQL Server...

Friends, the final and complete version of Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012 , by Ross Mistry ( @RossMistry ) and Stacia Misner ( @StaciaMisner ), is now ready as a free download! You can download the PDF version of this title here (288 pages; 10.8 MB).
We will update this post soon with links to EPUB and MOBI files. We expect these files to be available by March 23. UPDATE: The EPUB is here , and the MOBI is here .
Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012 includes 10 chapters:
PART I DATABASE ADMINISTRATION (by Ross Mistry)
1. SQL Server 2012 Editions and Engine Enhancements
2. High-Availability and Disaster-Recovery Enhancements
3. Performance and Scalability
4. Security Enhancements
5. Programmability and Beyond-Relational Enhancements
PART II BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE...

Today is Thursday! Yep, the week is nearly finished. It has been an exciting week, highlighted by conducting a week's worth of Live Meetings that have been attended by a couple thousand people . If history is any indication, the series of five live meetings will be downloaded many many more times than the actual number of attendees. The topic? Well Windows PowerShell of course.
When doing Live Meetings, the thing that is great is the diversity of the audience. Actually, though, this seems to be the case wherever I go. Several years ago when I was teaching VBScript classes, I would always have a wide variety of people in the class – some who were clearly advanced scripters, and others who were just beginning to see the advantages of automating repetitive processes on their servers....

The wait is almost over. We’re thrilled to announce that Windows Internals, Part 1, 6th Edition (ISBN 9780735648739; 752 pages) shipped to the printer today!
Written by some of the most knowledgeable experts in the internals field—Mark Russinovich, David Solomon, and Alex Ionescu—the latest edition of this highly-anticipated book will be delivered to stores in the next couple of weeks. It covers the kernel changes made in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. In addition, the hands-on experiments that appear throughout the book have been updated to reflect the evolution of the tools.
You can order your own copy here as well as here .
The sixth edition is being released in two parts: Part 1, this month; Part 2, this fall. The reason for the split? We wanted to get...

Christophe Nasarre here. I’m the Technical Reviewer of the upcoming sixth edition of Windows Internals , by Mark Russinovich, David Solomon, and Alex Ionescu, which is being released in two parts, the first part this month!
My introduction to this series of posts, in which I choose excerpts from the book to share with you, and my first excerpt (from Chapter 1, “Concepts and Tools”) are here .
Today I’d like to share an excerpt from Chapter 2, “System Architecture.”
In Chapter 2, you get a view of the architecture of Windows. The System processes are examined with their relationships (which is starting which, for example), and the surface of the Idle process is scratched. (I’ll get back to this particular process later.) You are also presented...

We’re excited to announce that Jennifer Mason, Christian Buckley, Brian T. Jackett, and Wes Preston’s Microsoft SharePoint 2010: Creating and Implementing Real-World Projects (ISBN: 9780735662827; 438 pages) is now available for purchase!
You can find the book’s chapter-level table of contents and Introduction to creating and implementing Microsoft SharePoint real-world projects in this previous post .
The approach the authors have taken in the book is to standardize each chapter's structure, which allows you to understand the what, why, and how of each solution quickly:
· Identifying the Business Problem: Explanation of the business problem to be solved
· Gathering Information: What are the requirements from the business side?
· Designing...

Ben here. I’m the Publisher of Microsoft Press. I usually keep away from blog posts and other sharp objects, but I’ve got a question for all of you. What’s next? I have the privilege to work with a great team of talented, hardworking, and foresighted people, here at Microsoft and at O’Reilly. We do our best to keep up-to-date with two rapidly evolving industries: technology and publishing. Where they come together is often where we interact with you, our authors and readers. Many of you read eBooks; many of you probably own an eReader or tablet, or more than one. Some of us were sitting around recently (no, not over lunch, and martinis were not involved) and began to explore, yet again, the most-discussed topic in publishing: The Future of the Book. Now, as you might expect, we have no shortage...

Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson begins a series of five live meetings on March 12, 2012
Ed here! Well it is official: next week, beginning on Monday, March 12, 2012, I will commence a new series of Learn Windows PowerShell live meetings. This series, titled Windows PowerShell for the busy admin, is going to be fun, educational, and a worthwhile use of your time. You need to sign up now to ensure there will be a slot for you to attend these free meetings. Of course, they will be recorded and will be made available via the TechNet Script Center Learn PowerShell page , but it is more fun to attend the live meeting and to be able to ask questions. Here is the vital information about the five meetings:
Session 1: PowerShell SmowerShell: or Why Bother to Learn Windows PowerShell...

This post is by Microsoft Press author and Microsoft MVP Andrew Brust :
I am proud to announce that I am ZDNet’s newest contributor, penning their Big on Data blog.
I’ve been interested in the “Big Data” movement for a while. I have Microsoft to thank for this, as I wrote a white paper on NoSQL for the SQL Azure team, and the research for it exposed me to the “Big Data” topic. I’ve worked with BI technology since the late 90s and I’ve worked with databases, data access and related programming since I did dBase II programming in the mid-80s. So moving to Big Data is a natural progression for me.
But there’s an unnatural part, too: for the most part, the Big Data field has been a relatively Microsoft-free industry area. Given that...

In celebration of the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch Event on March 7, 2012, Microsoft Press will be offering all kinds of great stuff!
First, if you are a registered attendee of the launch event, you will be able to download the ebook of Windows PowerShell 2.0 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant, by William Stanek, free of charge.
Second, you can now download sample chapters from William Stanek’s new book, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Pocket Consultant , here .
Third, on March 7, you can save 50% on a selection of William Stanek ebook titles, including Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Pocket Consultant . Check the "Special Offer" section of our blog (in the right margin) on Wednesday for the link to the special sale page!
Enjoy!

Save $6 on Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 Developer’s Handbook at Amazon.com by using this coupon at check-out. Good through the end of March, 2012. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735627053/ref=vp_c_A2JU1SOSQDCZ73?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Here’s the third post in what we hope will be a long series of guest posts by Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVPs). Since the early 1990s, Microsoft has recognized the inspiring activities of MVPs around the world with the MVP Award . MVPs freely share their deep knowledge, real-world experience, and impartial and objective feedback to help people enhance the way they use technology . Of more than 100 million users who participate in technology communities, around 4,000 are recognized as Microsoft MVPs.
This post is by Mitch Garvis, Windows Client MVP .
Mitch here. Microsoft appreciates its MVPs. I feel that appreciation in myriad ways throughout the year. However for four days every year Microsoft invites us all down to Redmond for the MVP Summit , which is where I probably...